The tripled debt means that every man, woman and child in the state owes $2,362 versus the $977 owed when Schwarzenegger took office. Just to pay interest every year on the state's debt takes up 7.1% of all spending from the state's general fund. Planned future borrowing, such as that for the California High Speed Rail System, will increase annual interest payments on debt alone to 10% of the state's annual budget by 2012.

When Schwarzenegger was elected, he said he would rip up the state's credit cards.

California has the world's eighth-largest economy.

In a December 8 meeting in Sacramento, state treasurer Bill Lockyer said, "Every dollar you spend on debt service is a dollar you don’t have available to educate kids or for health-care or to spend in other ways."[1]